If you’re not a positive deviant in your field, consider studying those who are, and then becoming one. Positive deviants are courageous people whose attitudes, behaviors and strategies dramatically increase their success over others who are in identical environments with the same opportunities. Positive deviants aren’t constrained by conventional wisdom. In fact, they understand that conventional wisdom is often the problem. Here’s one of the most profound applications of using positive deviance to save tens of thousands of kids from starving:*

“Through everything I’ve gone through —
and I’ve been everywhere, at the top of the world,
in jail, hung-over drunk —
I never gave up my dream of winning
a gold medal in the Olympics.”
— Dan O’Brien, Olympic decathlon champion, 1996
and three-time decathlon world champion

What are these you may ask? Your spouse? Parents? Boss? Coach? Kids? Wouldn’t that be nice! Unfortunately, none of these people is in your control. But, hey, the good news is that they’re all influenced by you and your relationship with them!

Dr. North’s Creed …
Be present.
Tell the truth.
Play to win.
Don’t be attached to the outcome.

The third part of the consultant’s creed was play to win (see the last post). Here’s one aspect of play to win that we didn’t cover: The best way to win is to stay in the present moment when performing (selling, competing, being of service) and to do this, don’t be attached to the outcome. Focus on being your best now, in the present.

Dr. North’s Creed …
Be present.
Tell the truth.
Play to win.
Don’t be attached to the outcome.

The last two posts focused on being present, and on telling the truth as the first half of my personal creed. This week focuses on the third part of the creed: Play to win.

Playing to win may seem self-evident, but often people play not to lose. Ever done that? I think most of us have; it takes more courage to play to win than to play not to lose. It could be a small thing such as choosing the color to paint a room (which my wife and I just did). Do you take a chance with a bold color that could be either stunning or awful, or do you go with the safe bet? We played to win, and we now have a stunning red room!

Dr. North’s Creed …
Be present.
Tell the truth.
Play to win.
Don’t be attached to the outcome.

The last post focused on being present. This post focuses on the second part of my creed: Tell the truth.

As a consultant, coach and husband being truthful sometimes requires finesse (especially as a husband)! Take my experience with a CEO/founder whom I’ll call Bob. Bob was an old-school leader who hired my company to change his company’s management system from command-and-control to team-based. After three years of intense work, the new system was mostly a success and the company was growing, but Bob struggled with the new system and flunked a leadership assessment.